“You’ll want some money to spend,” wrote Mr. Vinton, “and so I enclose herewith check for ten dollars. You mustn’t let your friend pay for everything, you know. Have a good time, and write and tell us what you do in New York. Your mother says you are to be very careful about crossing streets and riding in the subway. I say the same. The papers are full of accidents to folks in that town. You must try and get young Pennimore to come out and visit you this summer. It won’t do to let him do all the entertaining. If you think well of this, I will write to Mr. Pennimore about it when the time comes. Your mother and sister send their love. Your mother will write Sunday. Mae says I’m to tell you to send her lots of postcards from New York, and they must be colored ones, and you are to write on them all. My regards to Gerald. Your loving father.”
“I’d just love to go out and visit you,” said Gerald, when Dan read that portion of the letter to him, “but I don’t suppose father will let me. He will be afraid that the Indians will get me.”
“Oh, the Indians are quite peaceable in Graystone now,” laughed Dan. “You just show your father that you know how to look after yourself, and I guess he will let you go. Why, a year ago he wouldn’t have thought of letting you stay in New York with just the servants, Gerald!”
“That’s so! But he thinks you’re so grand, Dan; I guess that’s why.”
“Well, I’ll be just as ‘grand’ next summer,” replied Dan cheerfully. “I’ll bet he will let you go. If he does, we can have a dandy time at home.”
But meanwhile they were looking forward to a dandy time in New York. And they had it. When they arrived at the house there was a good dinner awaiting them, a dinner which Mr. Pennimore’s chef fashioned for the delectation of two hungry boys. Strange soups and unpronounceable entrees and fancy dishes in general were omitted, and all the time they were there they had just the sort of things they liked. They were not, all of them, the things usually prescribed for schoolboys, however, and if Spring recess had lasted two weeks instead of one, it is probable that they would have had to go under the doctor’s care.
“Gee!” exclaimed Dan on one occasion, “this cream pie is simply swell, Gerald! I suppose if I make the baseball team I’ll have to go in training. So I’m going to make the most of my chances now.”
“So am I,” replied Gerald. “There won’t be much more pie for us after we get back, will there?”
“Oh, you won’t have to train if you make the class team,” said Dan. “It’s just the Varsity, you know.”
“Won’t I?” asked Gerald disappointedly.